Section Pride & Elevating The Fan Experience In 2011-2012

Surly is one of the loudest people I know. If Staples Center was filled with 18,118 Surlies, the new speakers could blast any selection of funky music and you wouldn’t hear a thing. For goodness sake, last season, he started the DUN DUN DUN DUNDUN chant followed by the opposing team SUCKS and I could hear him in section 119…and he is in 315 (clear across the arena). He did that at least once a game, sometimes several.

So, I have moved to section 301 and got great seats in the process. I want to surround myself with the Diehards. Saving a few thousands dollars didn’t hurt. While I made some permanent friends in 119 and had the pleasure of sitting a few rows behind The Mayor, arguably the best chirper in the league (though he was more mellow this past season), I set forth a goal of getting a “team” of fans together in the 300s that would raise the roof. I don’t buy that those in the lower bowl are any less passionate. Perhaps older, perhaps more “corporate” (whatever that means) but I will admit, from game to game, the 300 sections are louder, sometimes much louder.

So, what the hell do I have in mind?

It’s actually simple.

Imagine you are at a game. You are also in section 301. In the beginning, there are 10-20 of us who are part of this, throughout said section. We coordinate. I start it, you start it, doesn’t matter, it builds. The soldiers in the adjacent rows (302-305 to the left, 331-334 to the right) pick up on it and spread it. What are we spreading? While Go King Go and Let’s Go Kings are certainly an option, I had deeper, more original and inspired creations in mind – each of whom would roll off the tongue. I will share those later and we can brainstorm about it as we draw closer to the season.

What about Surly’s side of the 300s? Those in sections 314-322 are most certainly invited. Surly will be your host and he can coordinate with you the chants and directed insanity. Remember those sections have a distinct advantage, in that they are near the media. Get loud enough in coordinated chants and everyone hears you. Can you imagine Bob and Jim hearing the deafening sound of “Anaheim Sucks!” followed immediately by an equally loud “Anaheim Swallows!!” That may be too graphic…or is it?

I look at section 304 and others that have built a reputation of being a vocal core of the fan base during games. I am very proud of those boys and girls. However, I refuse to believe that 1/2 the sections in the arena, especially in the 300s, cannot challenge 304 and then take it to a higher level. If anything, I would expect this experience and venture will spread like a virus throughout the arena. Fast forward – you are at a Kings v. Ducks’ game and you hear this starting in section 301 (this is off the top of my head so forgive its simplicity):

“Who Sucks?”

“DUCKS SUCK!”

“Hey Corey Perry!”

“YOU SUCK!”

“Hey Ryan Getzlaf!”

“YOU SUCK!”

“Hey Teemu!”

“SCREW YOU!”

…and this just spreads through the arena to the point the players, coaches and the media hear it all.

This is only the beginning. We are talking about an experience that, when in full effect, will get picked up by major media, blogs and other fans. I want our fan base to build a reputation as the loudest in the league. I want youtube videos posted, questions about the suddenly elevated fan experience posed to Dean Lombardi by the media and listen to his answer of, “I have never seen anything like this. Our fans have literally become the 7th player on the ice.” As a side note, I am kicking around the “7th Man” as the label for this. Sounds pseudo prophetic doesn’t it? I want to see opposing fans (especially those of the Red Wings, Canucks, Ducks, and others who make the journey) to sit in awe of the experience unfolding around them. We don’t even have to direct anything at them. To us, they don’t even exist. They are lamb among lions…they can watch because we’ll let them. They get too close and we feed.

I can’t do this alone. I need you. We have thousands of readers every day on this site. 5 participants will become 10. 10 will become 100. 100 will become 1000. Together, we will own Staples Center until the league takes notice and next time a major media outlet does a poll of the most diehard fans in the league, there is L.A. at number 1 and everyone else a distant second.

This won’t cost you a cent. You won’t have to travel one foot further than you already do to do this. I need your lungs. I need your passion unleashed during games.

Where do we start? I need to know who is in. You can comment below your confirmation and ideas. You can also email me at lakingsnews@gmail.com if you want to lead your own section. I am realistic and I don’t expect to get a 1000 people in the next 7 days. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither will this Kingdom. This is a season long effort but it starts here. All it takes is vision, fortitude and the ever important momentum.

60 replies

I’m in. I’m down in the 100’s for the first game of the season and subsequently park my ass in the 200’s for the rest of the games I go to but that doesn’t mean I don’t lose my voice every game I go to.

I think you should challenge the 300’s to a duel. Loudest section wins, period. Say what you want, yell what you’d like, pass out flyers up there to get it going like it’s a highschool house party for all I care. The die-hards are awesome! Get rambunctious, bring your flags and wave ’em around! Make the rest of the arena catch the madness that spreads up there because it’s sickness defined and I love it!

I thought about each section leader or two having a small single drum (a very small one) and drum stick, something they would allow in games and is very easy to carry. They would bang that to rhythm to get the other section drummers to join in and then it would coordinate throughout the entire arena. That would start the chants.

It’s been my dream for two years to get the entire arena doing the DUN DUN DUN chant during a game. Sure, I scream at the top of my lungs, but if everyone just did it in a mildly loud voice, as if you were talking over a passing airplane, it would sound amazing. 315 joins me in it and towards the end of last season someone in 314 started it on their own. That was a proud moment.

I also tried out a simple new chant in the playoffs that ppl seemed to like. “Holy shit, Sharks suck!”. Elegant. As we know from poor officiating, getting a stadium of ppl to yell ‘shit’ is actually pretty easy.

Dude, forgot to mention, post this everywhere you can. The more people that know about it, the more people can get involved. Yes, that means organizing and that means you and Quisp hold hands for a little bit and see what you can do.

Get the leaders of the “Circle of Kings”, eg. The Mayor, Quisp, Reed, KingsCast involved and rally your troops collectively and you have a fighting chance of making this happen. I’m sure if you all agree on something and it goes out to the masses, the first night would be something to revel in.

I have been wanting something like this for at least 10 years now. I am unable to go to games frequently enough (but when I do, you know I am going to get seats in 301) to start a following. So I go and try to start stuff (chants, mainly original) but nobody wants to follow suit, they are only interested in making noise when the announcer tells them, and doing that weak let’s go key-iings chant. So, I am all for helping with some ideas. I like talking trash about opposing players, but I really want to do some that make our players look like gods to us. For instance one my brother and I always do when Quick makes a sick save, “He’s fast, he’s slick, he’ll stop it with his stick, Jonathan Quick, Jonathan Quick!” Stuff like that.

Yea pretty much.. Every team has their own chants and a couple of guys with big drums plus usually 1 guy with a megaphone that coordinates everything. The people sing and cheer throughout the game and not only when something is happening. So I guess this is what your aiming at and I think it’s a great idea.

I’m in and will promote this throughout the season on the Die Hard Facebook Page. It is time we are loudly heard! I’d suggest contacting “The Royal Army” as well. This would be right up their alley and they’ll be right behind the Kings’ “Supporter Group” in the 200’s so maybe they can lure in those people as well.

BTW, Surly, I’ll be in the wheelchair section of 315 on Opening Night. I’ll yell with ya!

As you know bobby im in. ill contact a friend of mine whos one of the redcoats at staples and find out what we could get away with bringing into the arena. this is a sick idea and i can tell there is a lot of mementum for this. also you have loyal captains here ready and willing to go to war. ill get back to you

2 yrs ago, someone borrowed the idea of some european team to scream out the player names along with David Courtney any time he announced one. We passed out flyers in the playoffs and it started to gain some ground in a few sections, but has since died out.
It did sound pretty cool on the youtube videos of whole stadiums doing it, and might be worth breathing new life into.

I speak for the 96 members of the Royal Dog Pound (most of which generally sit in the 300s when they go to games) when I say THIS IS THE YEAR TO DROWN OUT THE SYSTEM, THIS IS THE YEAR TO SHOUT TIL YOU’RE HOARSE, THEN SHOUT AND CHANT SOME MORE, THIS IS THE YEAR WE SHOW EVERY OTHER TEAM OUT THERE THAT THIS IS A TEAM TO TAKE SERIOUSLY AND THIS IS A FAN BASE TO ENVY. While I personally know that I won’t be at many games this season (not at Staples anyway, unfortunately, but I will be just as loud and proud at the games I go to in Dallas), I know for a fact that the Diehards and the Dog Pound are spoiling for a good time and love to be loud, bold, and supportive of the team.
I’ll be at the home opener in that BigRedDog jersey calling to “Unleash the Hound” (aka Clifford), first one on my feet during a fight and the last one to sit back down after a goal. This is a season that will be remembered. This is the season of the fans.

also, I dig “the 7th Man” thing… it should go on a tshirt. Which I would be more than happy to design.

I have the contacts for the shirt but any help you can give would be appreciated. Send me an email so I have yours and I will coordinate this with you. The one rule I have is no money can be made from this. We will not sell the shirts. We will give them away. I don’t mind the “cost” being covered but that is it. This is all about the team and taking the experience to another level – not profits.

Regarding your soldiers, please talk to them about it on the facebook page and see if they can comment on their ideas. It would be easier if they commented here so we have everything in one place or you can gather their ideas and post it here. By this time next week I would like to have a list of ideas to share with the fan base and start coming to a consensus on what we use.

Thank you for joining us. We are going to bring the house down every night.

my artistic talents are at your disposal. I just messaged you on fb with my email. I’ll also have the folks in my group comment here with their ideas, because there’s quite a few nifty ones floating around.

Believe me, I know. I grew up with soccer as much as I did with hockey (though not in Europe, here). I was trying to make sure others understood that this would not be hooligan-ish…though I suppose once this gets in full effect, some may see it as exactly that :)

That’s exactly what it would be like. And I think that’s great. It should try and resemble something like the Timbers Army. (Portland Timbers MLS Soccer.) I don’t necessarily agree with sections “challenging” each other. Maybe it would have to start that way, but ultimately it should be one giant support group on the same page.

The chants have to be creative too. I love saying the Ducks Suck/Getzlaf Sucks/Perry sucks.. But it has to be more creative.

I have season seats in 315 I join in with the dun dun dun chat everytime…..We need to be louder……but almost every game the row infront of me had either opposing fans or people who had nothing to do that night and decided to check out a hockey game.

I am in section 315 also and working on my vocal cord exercising right now…SCREAM LOUD AND PROUD….just lead the way Surly!!!
And yes there are usually people behind us for the opposing team which is EXTREMELY annoying and they need to be yelled out of our section…..go play in Gilbert Lindsey Plaza instead.

“We love ya.. We love ya.. We love ya..
And where you go we’ll follow.. we’ll follow.. we’ll follow..
Cause we support the Kings! the Kings! the Kings!
And that’s the way we like it! we like it! we like it!
Oh-woah-woah-ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Seeing the story of Andrew Ference’s flash mob celebration with the Cup today….

Perhaps the inter-section communication could be handle by SMS text? Is there an easy way to set up mass distribution lists of folks who’ll participate? (Perhaps with the explicit understanding that only a section leader sends texts; not yahoos like me.)

Actually, this site can be the go to. Who doesn’t have internet on their phone anymore? We can have a dedicated page to it that has the details and updates and all the soldiers can bookmark it on their phones.

That’s a good idea and one that should be done. Especially for laying out that nights planned chants and activities.

But it’s passive to the participants. I’m watching the game — I don’t want to check the website every 0.2 minutes. I need something that actively notifies me that the shenanigans are imminent.

If you use Google Plus, we can all set up circles. When you post to the circle, our phones buzz/ring and we check in. So say you post something to the effect of “1st stoppage of play after 12:11 in the First Period, we….”

I always thought it would be really horrible for visiting teams if everyone whistled while they were on the power play. But, last years Kings were so good on the PK, didn’t want to ruin it. I figure the easier something is (whistling on the PK) the more people will join in (including nerds in suits). Just a thought.

Of course we can spread the word. I think it would be a good idea to start brainstorming asap. We need something offensive without being vulgar. What are the odds of a sit down happening in the next week or so?

On behalf of the Royal Army, we’d like to invite EVERYONE who has this mentality (thank you Scribe for blasting it up) to join us this season. We stand in section 209, and are getting some pretty good deals on tickets (the lowest 2nd level prive in the league). But no matter where you sit, feel free to join in on our passion, or meet up with us before the game at ESPN Zone (on the figueroa patio). Don’t by shy!

Our mentality is to Stand, Chant, & Cheer the WHOLE game!
We don’t sit, we’re loud, and proud!
This isn’t a section for everyone…
Most of us will be standing in Section 209 but we encourage everyone no matter where you sit to become part, sing a long, chant, clap, stand!

We will be at Hockeyfest passing out Song Sheets, feel free to come by and grab one.

From a proud soldier or knight (as we are all Kings), this 7th Man idea had me super excited and I live all the way in Montana! I would love the idea of shirts that we can all wear to represent our united cause no matter where we live in the world.

Saw a college game where the opposing team took a penalty and while the player was skating towards the box the entire building was pointing at him and chanting you, you, you, you, you in unison until he sat down in the penalty box. At that moment the entire building shouted YOU SUCK. It was automatic, it was concise and it galvanized the entire building to become one.

Regardless of what the shant, chirp or slogan is it would be great if it became tradition in our building so us die hards as well as the newbies could become one voice. That’s the ultimate fan experience.

In between periods in the smoking section (yea, I smoke..sorry) it is common practice when a opponents jersey is seen, someone will scream “Hey (opposing team name) fans..YOU SUCK!” That happens 2 or 3 times in a row just to get the point across. I LOVE doing and taking part in this. 50 or 60 people, imagine 18K doing it. That would be a blast!!!